V Festival Going Global

14 September 2006

V Festival is to be launched in countries around the world, following the success of its first event outside the UK in Canada
last week. With various countries already earmarked, Richard Branson says he's determined to "roll it out"...

V Festival is set to expand to Italy, Spain and South America, with an Australian event also in the pipeline.
But it looks as if it won't stop there...

Virgin boss Richard Branson has pledged
to make V Festival the biggest festival brand in the world.

With record sales falling, he predicts that bands will
become much more reliant on income from their live shows, paving the way for a global festival chain.

He told Reuters:
"We are looking at Italy, Spain and South America. We will roll it out.

"The great thing about
doing it in more than one country is we can coordinate it (and) get the bands moving between countries.

"Tour
will play a much greater part in the coming years. From a band's point of view, they make more out of playing live than
out of music sales."

V Festival, which has been running in the UK for the last ten years, made its first
international journey last weekend in Canada (September 9-10) at Toronto's Island Park, featuring
performances from The Flaming Lips, Gnarls Barkley, Broken Social Scene
and more.

It's next stop is at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on 23 September, which will
be headlined by The Who and Red Hot Chili Peppers.